My mom died last month, and we’ve been cleaning out her suite. After an initial cleanup and an estate sale, we’re packing the rest up for donation. Today four of us moved most of the furniture out and got almost everything packed.
Tomorrow, we’ll hopefully get the rest done before my wife and I start the 3 hour drive home.
Been there done that. Not a fun time.
Still dealing with leftover stuff that it’s hard for me to let go of.Yep. Our house (as well as my sister’s and brother’s houses) are packed to the rafters with nostalgia that we don’t need but can’t let go of yet.
God that sounds hard.
There’s some things I’m just not wired for and I think this is probably one of them. Having too much “stuff” just kinda freaks me out somehow, but just discarding photo albums and stuff would also feel wrong.
If there is a lot of stuff, you’ll probably find a lot of (for you) garbage. Clean that up first. Go through the heirlooms and photographs over time. Don’t keep the stuff that doesn’t have meaning to you. If it has meaning to someone else in the family, then pass it on - ideally to the next generation.
And take your time.
My parents have been doing this for the past two years; grandpa moved in half a year before they passed away, so kom and dad have been doing their best to give away all my grandparents hoarded stuff ever since.
Glad you got some help. It’s tough when you have to do it yourself. Not everything‘s great, but it’s nice when there’s at least somebody around to help with some tasks even if it’s just moving furniture.
It is. Sister, brother-in-law, and brother all live in the city my mom lived in. We were the ones who moved away.
We three siblings are pretty close, so it’s been easier to lean on each other (and our spouses) to get this stuff done. However, it’s still so hard - almost everything has sentimental value right now, and none of us has the space our mom had for stuff.
But we made it past this step. The apartment is empty. Now we have to start shrinking our piles of ‘stuff’ before we get used to it.
